Walk with Purpose: One Man's Journey For a Cause with Tom Platts

1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:04,800 But I've never done anything with such purpose and such longevity, 2 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:06,720 and also the whole fundraising thing like this. 3 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:10,360 It's really developed and I've just been making it up as I'm going along in many ways. 4 00:00:12,120 --> 00:00:15,520 Hello, and welcome to Every Moment is a Choice. 5 00:00:15,520 --> 00:00:20,400 I'm your host, Erika Behl, and I invite you to join me on a transformative journey 6 00:00:20,400 --> 00:00:25,480 to uncover the extraordinary potential that lies within every single moment of our lives. 7 00:00:25,480 --> 00:00:30,680 From the choices we make in our relationships, careers, and personal growth, 8 00:00:30,680 --> 00:00:33,720 to the mindset we embrace in the face of adversity, 9 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:38,680 this podcast will empower you to embrace the notion that every moment holds a choice, 10 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:41,360 and it's up to us to seize it. 11 00:00:41,360 --> 00:00:45,520 Join me as we engage in insightful conversations with thought leaders, experts, 12 00:00:45,520 --> 00:00:50,040 and everyday people who have harnessed the power of choice to achieve greatness, 13 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:54,040 overcome obstacles, and create extraordinary lives. 14 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:58,760 If you feel inspired by this episode, please read it and consider subscribing. 15 00:00:58,760 --> 00:01:01,920 I'm keen to know how it's impacted you. 16 00:01:01,920 --> 00:01:06,800 Okay, so we are walking around Mkhru Chi Reservoir in Singapore. 17 00:01:06,800 --> 00:01:09,280 It's a beautiful morning. 18 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:10,480 Sun hasn't even really risen yet. 19 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:11,920 No, not yet. 20 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:19,840 It's just after 6 a.m. looking out at a nice lake here at the reservoir. 21 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:21,080 And I'm with Tom Platts. 22 00:01:21,080 --> 00:01:23,320 Hello. How are you doing? 23 00:01:23,320 --> 00:01:24,320 Doing well. 24 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:27,040 So, Tom, what are we doing out here? 25 00:01:27,040 --> 00:01:30,720 Well, that's a good question. 26 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:35,120 This year, I've undertaken to do a challenge for myself 27 00:01:35,120 --> 00:01:41,920 and to raise money and awareness for dementia in Singapore and dementia globally 28 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:49,600 by walking or running around Mkhru Chi Reservoir here in Singapore as many times as possible. 29 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:52,080 And it's sort of all grown very organically. 30 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:53,840 Nothing was planned. 31 00:01:53,840 --> 00:01:58,120 And I can tell you the story if you're interested to hear more about how it all kicked off. 32 00:01:58,120 --> 00:02:04,120 But the total number of laps that I'm now looking to do this year is 365. 33 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:11,040 So I'll do one a day, which equates to about 4,400 kilometers here in Mkhru Chi. 34 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:15,200 Well, there are some tweaks around the edges around it because I travel a little bit. 35 00:02:15,200 --> 00:02:18,080 And as you know, I'm flying off today to Europe. 36 00:02:18,080 --> 00:02:19,280 But I can tell you more about that. 37 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:23,640 But that's the plan, and it's really just to raise awareness and to raise funds, 38 00:02:23,640 --> 00:02:29,440 if appropriate, for the charity and all the good work that Dementia Singapore does here 39 00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:31,760 for the people living with dementia. 40 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:33,120 That's fantastic. 41 00:02:33,120 --> 00:02:36,080 So we're walking around the reservoir right now. 42 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:38,160 We hear it's very quiet. 43 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:40,760 There's a few other walkers out here. 44 00:02:40,760 --> 00:02:45,040 And you said you're doing such a long distance. 45 00:02:45,040 --> 00:02:47,800 And this loop itself is around 11 kilometers. 46 00:02:47,800 --> 00:02:48,760 It's a bit more than that. 47 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:49,920 Yeah, it's a bit more than that. 48 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:52,960 It depends on which way you go and how much time people have in the morning. 49 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:58,240 Because I should say the other thing I do is I'm taking people out with me whilst I'm going. 50 00:02:58,240 --> 00:03:05,320 And it's all in the spirit of also connecting, reconnecting, and meeting new people here in Singapore. 51 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:09,000 And again, I can tell you a bit about the sort of numbers because I'm a bit of a statto. 52 00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:16,240 And I started really recording an awful lot of numbers and data. 53 00:03:16,240 --> 00:03:22,560 But it's actually if you go the slightly shorter way, which I suspect we may well do today, 54 00:03:22,560 --> 00:03:24,760 it's 11.7 kilometers. 55 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:29,280 And if you go the slightly longer way, again, depending on the GPS and the satellite, 56 00:03:29,280 --> 00:03:34,560 it's about 12.5 kilometers, which is how it adds up to about 4,500 kilometers in total. 57 00:03:34,560 --> 00:03:36,600 So 4,500 kilometers. 58 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:38,040 You know, Tom, I actually looked it up. 59 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:44,080 And if we walked from here to India, that's how much it would be. 60 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:44,840 That's not bad. 61 00:03:44,840 --> 00:03:45,320 Yeah. 62 00:03:45,320 --> 00:03:46,240 I know. Well, there you go. 63 00:03:46,240 --> 00:03:50,040 And as I say, I hadn't really planned, but that's how it's all developed. 64 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:53,440 I've got through seven pairs of trainers throughout the year so far. 65 00:03:53,440 --> 00:03:56,720 So Nike's been doing very well for me. 66 00:03:56,720 --> 00:04:00,480 But I'm not sure we're allowed to necessarily brand people, but they've done very well for me. 67 00:04:00,480 --> 00:04:02,640 OK. So let's rewind. 68 00:04:02,640 --> 00:04:04,080 Let's rewind here because we're walking. 69 00:04:04,080 --> 00:04:05,600 But let's think about this. 70 00:04:05,600 --> 00:04:09,160 OK, so I probably turn the torch off now as well. 71 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:11,320 The sun is just barely starting to come up here. 72 00:04:11,320 --> 00:04:12,560 So OK. 73 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:17,480 So Tom, you said you started this and now you're going to do 365 laps. 74 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:19,440 What was the thing that made you start? 75 00:04:19,440 --> 00:04:28,120 So I've lived in Singapore for 13 years and for 11 of those years, I was with my family. 76 00:04:28,120 --> 00:04:31,760 And now they've returned to the UK and I miss them dearly. 77 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:34,960 And it's quite hard because I fly back and forth. 78 00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:38,000 And there are various reasons why that's happened and they've gone back to the UK. 79 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,280 But it's it's been quite tough. 80 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:42,800 And, you know, it's tough for the family as well. 81 00:04:42,800 --> 00:04:48,400 But there are people out here like me who unfortunately are having to do this because of a variety of different reasons. 82 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:59,680 But actually, one of the things that I do do when I'm taking people around is to tell them all a bit about my story and my why I'm doing this and some of the things that have come up as a result of it. 83 00:04:59,680 --> 00:05:07,280 And you find that being more open with people about the reasons and that sort of that sort of thing for doing it, 84 00:05:07,280 --> 00:05:15,040 you end up gaining more interest from people generally and people themselves open up quite a lot too. 85 00:05:15,040 --> 00:05:16,960 Hello. Hi, Mr. Chong. 86 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:18,200 There you go. 87 00:05:18,200 --> 00:05:18,960 Bye bye. 88 00:05:18,960 --> 00:05:20,320 I said to you, there's a... 89 00:05:20,320 --> 00:05:21,160 Yes, do one today. 90 00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:23,440 Yep. Yep. 91 00:05:23,440 --> 00:05:24,240 So I said to you... 92 00:05:24,240 --> 00:05:26,240 So we meet people along the way. 93 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:29,120 That's right. So there's a bit of a community here in Ritchie. 94 00:05:29,120 --> 00:05:34,360 And Mr. Chong and I have now known each other since Luke, probably number three. 95 00:05:34,360 --> 00:05:37,960 But I didn't know that he was called Mr. Chong until Luke 220. 96 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:43,720 So about 55 loops ago, we became firm friends and now we can't say very much other than hello, Mr. Chong. 97 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:45,680 So it's got legs this relationship. 98 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:48,920 It's a bit of a slow burn, but I suspect we're going to be friends for life. 99 00:05:48,920 --> 00:05:51,960 But him and his four colleagues come around every morning. 100 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:55,760 We see each other at about the same place every time. 101 00:05:55,760 --> 00:06:00,400 Anyway, so they've been back in the UK and as you know, I'm flying back there today. 102 00:06:00,400 --> 00:06:03,760 I'm really excited to go to see them. 103 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:06,160 And we've got dementia in the extended family. 104 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:06,920 OK. 105 00:06:06,920 --> 00:06:10,240 And historically, we have had dementia in the family too. 106 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:12,800 And this is a message to them. 107 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:14,000 We're just going up some steps now. 108 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:21,160 So if we lose our breath a little bit, although the fitness has got a lot better, it might be a bit breathy. 109 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:31,400 But this is really a message to them to try to help in any which way I can to raise awareness for people living with dementia and also to raise funds as well. 110 00:06:31,400 --> 00:06:43,760 And I've now got to know the board and the charity at Dementia Singapore very well and all the fine stuff that they do here for people living with dementia and become firm friends with them. 111 00:06:43,760 --> 00:06:53,960 And so, you know, as a result of traveling an awful lot last year with all this, I put my head in the sand a bit in 2022. 112 00:06:53,960 --> 00:06:55,840 I also broke my shoulder skateboarding. 113 00:06:55,840 --> 00:06:59,280 That's not what somebody does at 43 years old, but I did. 114 00:06:59,280 --> 00:07:02,960 And so it meant that everything was a little bit dismal and a little bit difficult. 115 00:07:02,960 --> 00:07:20,400 So I thought that in 2023, I'd do something which was a bit more meaningful and which tried to bring into the world, into my world, a number of things to try to to give it a bit of zhuzh and to really pep it up a bit. 116 00:07:20,400 --> 00:07:22,280 And that's what this is all developed from. 117 00:07:22,280 --> 00:07:23,920 It was not planned. 118 00:07:23,920 --> 00:07:30,760 A client of mine said to me on January the 7th, a client called Mike, let's go and do something together. 119 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:33,640 Let's I need to have a chat with you about a few things. 120 00:07:33,640 --> 00:07:34,800 So I said, OK, let's do it. 121 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:37,040 And he suggested a beer. 122 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:38,400 I said to him, that's a good idea. 123 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:47,880 And then I thought, come on, that's not the right thing to do with this new January resolution to be a bit more into community life here in Singapore and meeting more people. 124 00:07:47,880 --> 00:07:51,600 And so I thought, no, come on, bring it back and say, let's go and do some exercise instead. 125 00:07:51,600 --> 00:07:56,280 And I used to do a lot with a couple of other people quite regularly last year. 126 00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:01,200 And it was a really nice way to do 20,000 steps or something before work. 127 00:08:01,200 --> 00:08:04,280 You'd invariably be in the office before everybody else. 128 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:10,520 And you'd have had two and a bit hours of chat and chewing the card over whatever it might be. 129 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:12,640 So it was always a nice thing to do. 130 00:08:12,640 --> 00:08:14,280 So he said, that's a good idea. 131 00:08:14,280 --> 00:08:21,480 I then rang him back a bit later and said, tell you what, you said you were going to take me out for beer. 132 00:08:21,480 --> 00:08:23,480 Or we were going to go out for beer. 133 00:08:23,480 --> 00:08:25,040 You asked me. 134 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:28,680 So I'll take that as you were going to be buying the beer. 135 00:08:28,680 --> 00:08:36,960 And now that we're not buying the beer, why don't we give the money that you think you would have spent, so the equivalence of the value that you would have spent on beer, give it to me. 136 00:08:36,960 --> 00:08:40,400 And I'll give it to my firm's charity of the year in Singapore. 137 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:43,720 And the firm here in Singapore has a variety of its own charities. 138 00:08:43,720 --> 00:08:46,000 And globally, we have charities as well. 139 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:47,360 So he said, well, that's an unusual request. 140 00:08:47,360 --> 00:08:48,280 But yeah, let's do that. 141 00:08:48,280 --> 00:08:49,080 OK. 142 00:08:49,080 --> 00:08:50,680 So we did the loop. 143 00:08:50,680 --> 00:08:52,880 We had a really nice chat. 144 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:55,640 We saw a snake or two. 145 00:08:55,640 --> 00:08:57,880 And in fact, we saw a blue Malayan coral snake. 146 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:00,800 And I'll tell you a bit more about the animals I see here later. 147 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:03,520 And put the well to right. 148 00:09:03,520 --> 00:09:04,640 And it was really nice. 149 00:09:04,640 --> 00:09:10,320 And I could feel something germinating in my head that this was something that was fun. 150 00:09:10,320 --> 00:09:12,040 It had direction. 151 00:09:12,040 --> 00:09:15,640 And it really had a potential opportunity. 152 00:09:15,640 --> 00:09:16,680 And it was healthy. 153 00:09:16,680 --> 00:09:23,360 And in the spirit of mental well-being and healthiness, let's say, both mind and body, 154 00:09:23,360 --> 00:09:26,200 it was something that I thought would be a nice thing to perhaps do again. 155 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:29,080 So I did it a few more times with other people. 156 00:09:29,080 --> 00:09:33,840 And I was probably sitting on about $400 or $500 by the middle of January. 157 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:36,280 And I'd done maybe, I don't know, four or five loops. 158 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:40,440 So it was a pretty early, slow start and nothing planned, as I say. 159 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:45,960 I then spoke to our lady in the office who looks after the charities for Singapore and 160 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:48,440 said, who is our charity, actually? 161 00:09:48,440 --> 00:09:51,640 Because I'm now sitting on a bit of money, which come the end of January, I'll probably 162 00:09:51,640 --> 00:09:55,520 end up spending on beer because I haven't been able to do it in January because it's 163 00:09:55,520 --> 00:09:57,360 a dry month. 164 00:09:57,360 --> 00:09:58,360 That sounds like I'm an alcoholic. 165 00:09:58,360 --> 00:09:59,360 I'm not. 166 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:03,520 But that, I suspect, would have happened. 167 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:06,720 So she said, actually, we're coming to the end of the term with a charity. 168 00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:07,720 We do two-year cycles. 169 00:10:07,720 --> 00:10:12,880 And so I thought, well, look, it feels like a really good idea to do something to raise 170 00:10:12,880 --> 00:10:17,120 awareness for the dementia, given our family circumstances. 171 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:20,520 And I won't go into names and stuff, but they know who they are. 172 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:23,160 So that was really how it all kicked off. 173 00:10:23,160 --> 00:10:29,160 And so I spoke to the charity here, Dementia Singapore, and they have to give you permission 174 00:10:29,160 --> 00:10:33,640 to set up a fundraising link page, the Just Giving page. 175 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:36,860 And I think they were equally as flummoxed as to what I was going to be doing, some crazy 176 00:10:36,860 --> 00:10:41,460 expat going to do something in MacRitchie but wasn't entirely sure what it was going 177 00:10:41,460 --> 00:10:42,800 to be. 178 00:10:42,800 --> 00:10:46,000 And to be fair, I wasn't entirely sure either what it was going to be. 179 00:10:46,000 --> 00:10:51,040 So it was all a bit sort of suck it and see, I suppose. 180 00:10:51,040 --> 00:10:52,520 And so that's how it all developed. 181 00:10:52,520 --> 00:10:55,440 I then put it onto LinkedIn and onto Facebook. 182 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:58,120 I'm a bit too old for Instagram, or at least I don't really understand it. 183 00:10:58,120 --> 00:10:59,800 I probably should do. 184 00:10:59,800 --> 00:11:05,240 And I said to people, look, I'm going to do 75 laps of MacRitchie this year. 185 00:11:05,240 --> 00:11:06,720 People can come if they want to. 186 00:11:06,720 --> 00:11:07,720 They don't have to. 187 00:11:07,720 --> 00:11:12,640 People can sponsor me if they'd like to, and the money's going to go to Dementia Singapore. 188 00:11:12,640 --> 00:11:14,080 But it's not compulsory. 189 00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:16,140 It's all very, very low key. 190 00:11:16,140 --> 00:11:20,640 But it's just an opportunity for me to meet with people again, to connect with people 191 00:11:20,640 --> 00:11:23,120 again, and just to catch up, really. 192 00:11:23,120 --> 00:11:24,940 That was the initial plan. 193 00:11:24,940 --> 00:11:28,280 And I did 75 laps of or loops of MacRitchie. 194 00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:30,840 That would be about 1,000 kilometers. 195 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:33,120 And that would be brilliant. 196 00:11:33,120 --> 00:11:37,360 And the plan was then to raise $5,000 for Dementia Singapore. 197 00:11:37,360 --> 00:11:40,000 So I put it onto LinkedIn and Facebook. 198 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:44,920 And I sort of didn't think very much more, but I started getting a bit of traction and 199 00:11:44,920 --> 00:11:51,740 WhatsApp's here and LinkedIn messages there and whatever, such that by the third day after 200 00:11:51,740 --> 00:11:59,120 posting it, I'd got the next six weeks booked out twice a day. 201 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:02,280 And it was obviously going a bit viral. 202 00:12:02,280 --> 00:12:05,880 And I've never had anything like that or experienced anything like that before. 203 00:12:05,880 --> 00:12:06,880 And I was a bit humbled. 204 00:12:06,880 --> 00:12:10,240 I was a bit worried, logistically. 205 00:12:10,240 --> 00:12:13,800 Oh my gosh, how am I going to do two laps of MacRitchie Reservoir every day for the 206 00:12:13,800 --> 00:12:14,800 next six weeks? 207 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:17,360 Can you see the lizard coming up here? 208 00:12:17,360 --> 00:12:18,360 That's lizard number 301. 209 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:20,480 And what's that bird there? 210 00:12:20,480 --> 00:12:21,480 And that's a heron. 211 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:22,480 That's nice, isn't it? 212 00:12:22,480 --> 00:12:23,480 There's a heron. 213 00:12:23,480 --> 00:12:24,480 That's a heron. 214 00:12:24,480 --> 00:12:25,480 So there are two herons that live around the corner here. 215 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:26,480 There she goes. 216 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:29,000 There she goes, just flying over the lake. 217 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,720 And then that there, as I say, that's lizard number 301. 218 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:34,600 Don't let me forget to tell you about the animals, OK? 219 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:35,600 I'm sure you'll love it. 220 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:36,600 We'll talk about the animals in a bit. 221 00:12:36,600 --> 00:12:37,600 Of course. 222 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:40,320 So anyway, look, it sort of really picked up. 223 00:12:40,320 --> 00:12:42,800 And we had all of these days booked out. 224 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:46,840 And so what I tried to do actually at that stage was I'd have to be here at five o'clock 225 00:12:46,840 --> 00:12:47,840 in the morning. 226 00:12:47,840 --> 00:12:51,840 So we did the first loop almost entirely in the dark with a torch. 227 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:54,120 And then the second loop, we'd started about seven. 228 00:12:54,120 --> 00:12:56,160 Yeah, it just sort of took off. 229 00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:59,280 And so I started putting together groups of people that I thought might be interested. 230 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:01,020 So as I say, I'm a lawyer. 231 00:13:01,020 --> 00:13:03,160 So I did International Deal Day. 232 00:13:03,160 --> 00:13:09,640 So I had a lawyer, an underwriter, a broker, a corporate finance guy, a bank, a targeted 233 00:13:09,640 --> 00:13:12,120 shareholder investor, all that sort of stuff. 234 00:13:12,120 --> 00:13:14,280 I had Offshore Lawyers Day. 235 00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:16,480 I had Cybersecurity Day. 236 00:13:16,480 --> 00:13:21,800 I did Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Day, where I tried to be as diverse as I possibly 237 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:27,760 could be for a middle-aged white senior legal professional. 238 00:13:27,760 --> 00:13:30,720 So not as diverse as I could be, but trying my best. 239 00:13:30,720 --> 00:13:34,920 And so we did all these different events and days, and it really took off. 240 00:13:34,920 --> 00:13:36,560 And that's just a slice of them. 241 00:13:36,560 --> 00:13:41,240 And actually, more recently, I've been asked by quite a few companies, so seven actually 242 00:13:41,240 --> 00:13:45,280 so far, to do their corporate social responsibility mornings. 243 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:50,680 So I'll be here at sort of 6.30 in the morning, and I'll take out a bunch of folk from various 244 00:13:50,680 --> 00:13:52,080 different businesses. 245 00:13:52,080 --> 00:13:56,140 So I've done some of the banks, I've done some of the private equity houses, a couple 246 00:13:56,140 --> 00:13:59,000 of PR companies, et cetera. 247 00:13:59,000 --> 00:14:00,520 And they'll do a loop with me. 248 00:14:00,520 --> 00:14:05,520 I'll talk to them about this, what it's about, the sort of mental wellness, well-being type 249 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:08,080 thing, and the animals that we see. 250 00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:11,120 And then they'll go off and do whatever they do, and I'll go to the office. 251 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:12,520 But it's been quite a nice thing. 252 00:14:12,520 --> 00:14:16,280 So that's obviously boosted the numbers of people I've met, even though some of them 253 00:14:16,280 --> 00:14:18,440 have been sort of press-ganged into it by their bosses. 254 00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:23,320 But I think most of them have really enjoyed it, and it's been a very enjoyable experience. 255 00:14:23,320 --> 00:14:27,800 So that's what's really happened, and that's how it's all developed into what it is. 256 00:14:27,800 --> 00:14:29,120 What do people think of it? 257 00:14:29,120 --> 00:14:31,280 Well, I think they take it for what it is. 258 00:14:31,280 --> 00:14:34,240 And it's a very innocent project. 259 00:14:34,240 --> 00:14:39,560 And it's not something that, as I say, as you can hear, has been deliberately logistically 260 00:14:39,560 --> 00:14:42,200 developed over time, sort of organized. 261 00:14:42,200 --> 00:14:43,760 It's come about as it goes. 262 00:14:43,760 --> 00:14:45,980 And you and I have spoken for some time anyway. 263 00:14:45,980 --> 00:14:50,760 You know that I set up all sorts of ridiculous rules, regulations, and everything that's 264 00:14:50,760 --> 00:14:53,820 sort of trying to be fun about how this goes. 265 00:14:53,820 --> 00:14:57,040 The only thing I will say is that it has been a logistical nightmare. 266 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:02,400 I've got three spreadsheets going at any one time, and it has gone really quite busy recently 267 00:15:02,400 --> 00:15:03,640 up here. 268 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:07,720 And so I've just been trying to figure out who goes where, who goes what. 269 00:15:07,720 --> 00:15:12,240 Obviously, with flying, et cetera, it becomes quite challenging as well. 270 00:15:12,240 --> 00:15:13,240 But it's good. 271 00:15:13,240 --> 00:15:17,360 And so I'm now fully booked out until December the 17th, which is quite crazy. 272 00:15:17,360 --> 00:15:21,320 And I've got groups through till then, and that's great. 273 00:15:21,320 --> 00:15:24,960 So tell us, you mentioned these hats we're wearing. 274 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:28,680 These are like trucker hats, like the Say McRitchie challenge. 275 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:31,640 You mentioned the rules to who gets these hats. 276 00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:33,120 What are the rules? 277 00:15:33,120 --> 00:15:37,740 OK, so again, as I said, I sort of make these things up as I'm going along. 278 00:15:37,740 --> 00:15:42,080 But one of the things I thought I'd do, because I didn't have any merch previously before 279 00:15:42,080 --> 00:15:46,480 I went back to the UK, and I had to go back to the UK for an extended period of time in 280 00:15:46,480 --> 00:15:49,120 April for family reasons. 281 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:53,180 And so I thought, well, I'd try to do something to maybe raise awareness of what I'm doing 282 00:15:53,180 --> 00:15:55,640 in the UK and in the States, obviously, as well. 283 00:15:55,640 --> 00:15:56,640 Yeah. 284 00:15:56,640 --> 00:15:57,640 And look at the sunrise. 285 00:15:57,640 --> 00:15:58,640 Isn't it beautiful? 286 00:15:58,640 --> 00:15:59,640 Yeah. 287 00:15:59,640 --> 00:16:00,640 Every day, it's different here. 288 00:16:00,640 --> 00:16:01,640 That's what's so beautiful about it. 289 00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:06,560 Every day, you see a different type of sky, the water slightly more choppy or flatter. 290 00:16:06,560 --> 00:16:09,160 It's like a, it's like glass, can it say? 291 00:16:09,160 --> 00:16:10,160 Yeah. 292 00:16:10,160 --> 00:16:12,360 So we're stopped here looking over the reservoir. 293 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:13,360 I see something. 294 00:16:13,360 --> 00:16:14,360 And that's another lizard. 295 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:15,360 Another lizard. 296 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:16,360 Yeah. 297 00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:17,360 So that's 302. 298 00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:18,360 So these are monitor lizards. 299 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:20,560 These are not lizards like we have in the US. 300 00:16:20,560 --> 00:16:23,800 These are almost Komodo dragon. 301 00:16:23,800 --> 00:16:26,920 Like think Komodo dragon in your mind. 302 00:16:26,920 --> 00:16:27,920 Exactly. 303 00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:32,680 So look, what I thought was I'd get some merchandise and I'd make some hats and they are deliberately 304 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:37,040 trucker hats, very bright and pretty cheap looking. 305 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:42,720 But I've probably had 250 made now and people have started to ask about them. 306 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:45,760 So I set up what I thought would be quite clever would be some rules. 307 00:16:45,760 --> 00:16:47,920 So it tries to attract more people to come. 308 00:16:47,920 --> 00:16:49,840 And there's the other heron there. 309 00:16:49,840 --> 00:16:50,840 Oh yeah. 310 00:16:50,840 --> 00:16:51,840 See his head sticking out? 311 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:52,840 That's a nice head. 312 00:16:52,840 --> 00:17:00,200 So there are, as a lawyer, laws and rules, as you know, are what I love, right? 313 00:17:00,200 --> 00:17:04,680 So there are six laws and one rule. 314 00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:10,200 And the laws and the rules have direct and indirect effects, a little bit like EU competition 315 00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:13,800 law, which I learnt about when I was a trainee solicitor. 316 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:15,440 But the laws are as follows. 317 00:17:15,440 --> 00:17:17,120 Law number one. 318 00:17:17,120 --> 00:17:18,440 It's my party. 319 00:17:18,440 --> 00:17:22,040 I can have any hat I want at any time. 320 00:17:22,040 --> 00:17:23,760 Law number two. 321 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:30,080 The three people that I mentioned that I used to do McRitchie with regularly last year, 322 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:36,560 and including the chap that I first did with this, are called Mike, Will and Faye. 323 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:41,720 And Will particularly thinks I commercialized what we did last year a lot, but I think in 324 00:17:41,720 --> 00:17:43,820 a very good spirit it's fun. 325 00:17:43,820 --> 00:17:48,720 And he's really bought into it and I really appreciate his friendship and support, as 326 00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:51,480 do I with Mike and particularly Faye as well. 327 00:17:51,480 --> 00:17:54,960 But so I consider them to be the founders of this. 328 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:58,920 Now they aren't, and they would heavily dispute the fact that they are founders, but I do 329 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:03,120 it because it hedges my liability in cases goes wrong and I look like an idiot. 330 00:18:03,120 --> 00:18:07,000 So I can at least try and put some of the blame their way by saying they were the founders. 331 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:09,280 They aren't and they have nothing to do with it. 332 00:18:09,280 --> 00:18:12,660 However, I like to think it's a sort of a little joke around that. 333 00:18:12,660 --> 00:18:16,200 And so Law 2, they have to have a hat whenever they want as well. 334 00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:23,320 Law 3, anybody who lives in Singapore and does it three times with me will receive their 335 00:18:23,320 --> 00:18:24,320 cap. 336 00:18:24,320 --> 00:18:25,840 And that's the gold standard. 337 00:18:25,840 --> 00:18:31,040 So people should be looking in my eyes to earn their cap under Law 3. 338 00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:36,120 So you earned your hat for a different reason, we'll come to, but you've now done this, this 339 00:18:36,120 --> 00:18:37,840 will be your second time. 340 00:18:37,840 --> 00:18:42,240 So you need to come back before January the 13th, which is when this all ends, this whole 341 00:18:42,240 --> 00:18:47,440 show and you will earn your cap properly under Law 3 on that occasion. 342 00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:49,920 And I'll tell you a bit more about that why soon. 343 00:18:49,920 --> 00:18:54,840 So Law 4, anybody who flies into Singapore and does it from another country. 344 00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:58,720 So earlier in the week, I had somebody who came in from Jordan. 345 00:18:58,720 --> 00:19:01,080 So we're just bending over and about to go through a lot of water here. 346 00:19:01,080 --> 00:19:02,080 So you okay? 347 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:03,080 Yeah. 348 00:19:03,080 --> 00:19:06,760 So, so Law 4, I had somebody in from Jordan earlier this week. 349 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:12,160 So I've not had anyone from, from Jordan previously, but I've now had people coming in from 31 350 00:19:12,160 --> 00:19:15,680 different countries and doing it, which is really cool. 351 00:19:15,680 --> 00:19:23,880 So America, Australia, Russia, Ukraine, Botswana, South Africa, Canada, England, obviously, 352 00:19:23,880 --> 00:19:27,240 Austria, New Zealand, Dubai, Jordan. 353 00:19:27,240 --> 00:19:28,400 It's been really cool. 354 00:19:28,400 --> 00:19:33,800 And I've had pictures of people after they've been wearing their hats in their offices or 355 00:19:33,800 --> 00:19:37,040 wherever it might be in those different countries that people have sent them to me. 356 00:19:37,040 --> 00:19:40,480 And I had a really lovely message not so long ago from a very good friend of mine in New 357 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:46,360 York who wasn't able to do the McRitchie Big Apple edition with me when I was there in 358 00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:47,960 at the end of March. 359 00:19:47,960 --> 00:19:51,320 And he said, oh mate, hi, I've just run around Central Park. 360 00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:53,120 I did 13.1 miles. 361 00:19:53,120 --> 00:19:54,560 I did a half marathon. 362 00:19:54,560 --> 00:19:56,800 Does that qualify me for a McRitchie? 363 00:19:56,800 --> 00:20:00,920 And I said, you don't really understand the rules, but that's absolutely fine. 364 00:20:00,920 --> 00:20:03,600 So I'll send you a cap anyway, as a well done. 365 00:20:03,600 --> 00:20:04,600 So he sent me a photograph. 366 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:09,240 So I put in the post to him in New York and he sent me a picture from his office wearing 367 00:20:09,240 --> 00:20:12,760 his McRitchie challenge hat, which is really lovely to see. 368 00:20:12,760 --> 00:20:15,080 It's really quite heartwarming. 369 00:20:15,080 --> 00:20:20,160 So Law 5, anybody under the age of 18. 370 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:26,980 So I've taken five families with their moms and dads with their daughters or sons. 371 00:20:26,980 --> 00:20:29,560 And obviously my daughters have done it too as well. 372 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:33,840 And Connie, my older daughter, actually did lap 200 with me, which was a really special 373 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:35,560 moment and I loved that. 374 00:20:35,560 --> 00:20:36,600 So they've got their hats too. 375 00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:39,640 So I've had eight kids under the age of 18. 376 00:20:39,640 --> 00:20:42,160 So then we get to the best one of the lot, which is Rule 6. 377 00:20:42,160 --> 00:20:44,480 Now why it's a rule, why not? 378 00:20:44,480 --> 00:20:49,680 There's no particular reason, but this is how you won your cap the first time. 379 00:20:49,680 --> 00:20:52,080 You were given a cap through Rule 6. 380 00:20:52,080 --> 00:20:54,160 And I call that the randoms rule. 381 00:20:54,160 --> 00:21:00,160 I don't mean to say that you're random, which has sort of connotations about it, but it 382 00:21:00,160 --> 00:21:02,000 just means I've never met you before. 383 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:06,840 And I think you contacted me through, how did we get together first time around? 384 00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,800 It was through one of my friends who had gone around with you. 385 00:21:09,800 --> 00:21:10,800 That's it. 386 00:21:10,800 --> 00:21:11,800 Okay. 387 00:21:11,800 --> 00:21:13,880 And so we'd not met, but you said, Hey, I've seen what you're doing. 388 00:21:13,880 --> 00:21:14,880 And so I said, Oh, great. 389 00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:15,880 Let's do it. 390 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:25,200 So I've had come out so far now of the 497 people who have come out with me so far, 283 391 00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:28,040 of them are people I've never met before. 392 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:29,560 And that's what this whole thing is about. 393 00:21:29,560 --> 00:21:33,160 So it's a really cool fact, and I'm really proud of that actually more than anything 394 00:21:33,160 --> 00:21:34,160 else. 395 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:36,600 And pride isn't a word that I like to use that much. 396 00:21:36,600 --> 00:21:39,360 But obviously, it's just something that's really sort of humbling. 397 00:21:39,360 --> 00:21:43,120 And because of the fact that this has sort of developed so much over time, it's just 398 00:21:43,120 --> 00:21:45,200 a really nice thing to be able to say. 399 00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:49,160 I also mentioned earlier, obviously, that we do have done quite a few of these corporate 400 00:21:49,160 --> 00:21:50,160 days. 401 00:21:50,160 --> 00:21:54,640 So in that number, as I mentioned, there's quite a few people who I probably won't ever 402 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,800 meet again, you know, who came out because they were being sort of press gagged into 403 00:21:57,800 --> 00:21:58,800 it by their bosses. 404 00:21:58,800 --> 00:22:04,600 And I think that they all came away with a happy face and having had an enjoyable experience. 405 00:22:04,600 --> 00:22:07,840 A lot of people, particularly Singaporean people, they've not actually ever done a 406 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:09,640 whole loop of McRitchie. 407 00:22:09,640 --> 00:22:11,600 And many haven't been here for 10, 20 years. 408 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:13,880 So for them to come back, they've really enjoyed it. 409 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:18,920 And I've actually seen an uptick in people here, just because I think they've heard about 410 00:22:18,920 --> 00:22:21,900 this or they're doing it and they're doing it because they've done it. 411 00:22:21,900 --> 00:22:25,360 Quite a few people now, actually, it's quite interesting to see. 412 00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:31,800 But of that number, the 280, whatever it is, there's 175 people who've actually written 413 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:37,940 to me directly, like you, who are much closer random connections, if you know what I mean, 414 00:22:37,940 --> 00:22:43,200 because they've actually expressed an interest to meet or to hear more about the challenge 415 00:22:43,200 --> 00:22:47,080 or because they've got dementia in their family or just because they're interested generally 416 00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:49,400 in coming to McRitchie and do some exercise. 417 00:22:49,400 --> 00:22:51,760 And that to me is what's the best bit of the whole thing. 418 00:22:51,760 --> 00:22:55,520 So I've effectively made 175 new friends. 419 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:59,400 Some will be great friends, some less so, but that's how it's all come about. 420 00:22:59,400 --> 00:23:03,960 And they've texted me, linked into me, emailed me, phoned me, whatever it might be. 421 00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:08,720 And that really, to me, is the sort of crux of this whole thing from a personal perspective. 422 00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:13,200 And obviously, the charity elements and the fundraising and awareness is the key bit behind 423 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:14,200 it. 424 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:15,200 But personally, that's what this is about. 425 00:23:15,200 --> 00:23:18,840 And of course, a lot of people say to me, well, well, it's a great business development 426 00:23:18,840 --> 00:23:19,840 tool as well. 427 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:24,760 And of course, there are side effects which have been helpful and good. 428 00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:27,120 And I could tell you more about that. 429 00:23:27,120 --> 00:23:31,500 But I won't, because it's not actually about the firm at all. 430 00:23:31,500 --> 00:23:32,500 It's really about me. 431 00:23:32,500 --> 00:23:34,320 And I don't mean that in a selfish way. 432 00:23:34,320 --> 00:23:35,560 It's my thing. 433 00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:37,560 And I'm very happy to share it. 434 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:42,340 I'm also really happy for people to maybe do it elsewhere, because it has taken off. 435 00:23:42,340 --> 00:23:45,460 And I know that some people have expressed an interest in maybe taking this forward next 436 00:23:45,460 --> 00:23:47,960 year when I sort of retire it, so to speak. 437 00:23:47,960 --> 00:23:52,320 And I'd be delighted if they did, because it is a logistical effort. 438 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:54,200 It gives you a great regime. 439 00:23:54,200 --> 00:23:58,520 I know what I'm doing at 5.30 every morning and preparing for it the night before, et 440 00:23:58,520 --> 00:23:59,520 cetera. 441 00:23:59,520 --> 00:24:01,360 But it has been a wonderful thing. 442 00:24:01,360 --> 00:24:04,200 The last thing about the hats, there's Law 7. 443 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:06,240 So Law 7 is the catch-all veto right. 444 00:24:06,240 --> 00:24:08,800 I can give hat to anybody I want at any time. 445 00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,160 So reality is I give them to pretty much everybody. 446 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:13,840 You have to be pretty unlucky if you don't get one. 447 00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:16,880 And that's usually because I've run out of them at home. 448 00:24:16,880 --> 00:24:18,880 But I've got another batch in now. 449 00:24:18,880 --> 00:24:22,040 So for anybody who wants to come, do come, because I can give you a hat now. 450 00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:23,240 But so Law 7 does that. 451 00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:29,120 The only new addition to the laws which came up last week is that I consider anybody who 452 00:24:29,120 --> 00:24:33,480 has got their hat through Law 7 to have an asterisk by their name. 453 00:24:33,480 --> 00:24:39,960 So if you'd won your hat through Law 7, as opposed to random rule 6, I would always think 454 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:44,440 of you as, what number are you, about 250, let's say, something like that. 455 00:24:44,440 --> 00:24:49,840 I'd always have thought of you as Erica, 250 asterisk. 456 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:51,720 And in my eyes, right? 457 00:24:51,720 --> 00:24:53,440 You don't care, but I'm just saying it. 458 00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:58,360 So what the asterisk is meant to do is it's meant to sort of tempt you to come back so 459 00:24:58,360 --> 00:24:59,480 that you do it three times. 460 00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:04,520 You actually win your hat properly under Law 3 so that I can finally remove the asterisk 461 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:05,520 from your name. 462 00:25:05,520 --> 00:25:08,120 So it's really just a joke to say come back and have another go. 463 00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:10,120 And that's gone down quite well, actually. 464 00:25:10,120 --> 00:25:13,440 When you said you were raising money, what are you up to now? 465 00:25:13,440 --> 00:25:19,920 So the target, I think you asked me, so originally the target I was looking to raise was $5,000. 466 00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:21,560 That's been a bit of a moveable feast. 467 00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:24,240 I then went to, I think, $15,000. 468 00:25:24,240 --> 00:25:27,560 And last week, in fact, yesterday, I went over $55,000. 469 00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:28,560 Wow. 470 00:25:28,560 --> 00:25:30,080 So I'm really proud of it. 471 00:25:30,080 --> 00:25:33,040 And I've had some very generous donors. 472 00:25:33,040 --> 00:25:35,080 The charity has obviously got really behind it. 473 00:25:35,080 --> 00:25:39,120 And they've been very good about publicizing it and also coming and taking part. 474 00:25:39,120 --> 00:25:41,720 And as I said to you, I took 47 people. 475 00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:43,800 That's my largest group so far now. 476 00:25:43,800 --> 00:25:48,280 47 people around Ritchie 10 days ago. 477 00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:52,040 And there were 15 people living with dementia in that group. 478 00:25:52,040 --> 00:25:54,560 And they had their primary carers with them. 479 00:25:54,560 --> 00:25:56,560 And there are people from the board. 480 00:25:56,560 --> 00:26:02,480 I took my trainee from the office who helped me with producing a little quiz and questionnaire 481 00:26:02,480 --> 00:26:04,720 that the people could do whilst they were going. 482 00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:08,080 So they had a little bit of focus in the walk, which was nice. 483 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:11,760 And so I gave them a little bit of a quiz on the animals that I'd seen. 484 00:26:11,760 --> 00:26:14,000 And then they were spotting things as they were going. 485 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:16,920 They did a short 5K loop rather than the whole thing. 486 00:26:16,920 --> 00:26:21,560 And I took the tallest man I know in Singapore as well out for that one so that he could 487 00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:23,720 act as a bit of a beacon for them to follow. 488 00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:24,720 That was really nice. 489 00:26:24,720 --> 00:26:28,040 But so $55,000 is the number I've got. 490 00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:31,760 And sort of I'm going towards $75,000. 491 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:34,200 If I get to $100,000, that would be amazing. 492 00:26:34,200 --> 00:26:35,720 And that's certainly behind the scenes. 493 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:36,720 That's my target. 494 00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:42,840 And I'd say the behind the scenes target for number of loops is $365,000. 495 00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,840 And that would all go to Dementia Singapore. 496 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:46,840 That's right. 497 00:26:46,840 --> 00:26:47,840 Yep. 498 00:26:47,840 --> 00:26:50,080 Which is a pretty small organization, I imagine. 499 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:52,360 Yes, it's government funded here. 500 00:26:52,360 --> 00:26:53,760 Most of the charities are. 501 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:55,160 But it's professionally run. 502 00:26:55,160 --> 00:27:01,760 But it supports dementia patients and dementia care here in Singapore. 503 00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,880 And I've made some incredibly tight friendships out of that. 504 00:27:04,880 --> 00:27:12,240 So Cindy, Jason, Paul Heng, Bernard, Roger, who am I missing? 505 00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:13,880 They all know who they are. 506 00:27:13,880 --> 00:27:16,480 And it's been really quite wonderful, actually. 507 00:27:16,480 --> 00:27:17,960 Sherwin, sorry. 508 00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:20,560 But they really are an impressive bunch. 509 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:22,840 And I just think the world of them, actually. 510 00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:28,080 And so yes, I've had the opportunity to do things with them, go to various events for 511 00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:31,160 them, speak at various things with them. 512 00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:33,120 And it's been very nice. 513 00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:37,800 So in Singapore, there are about 125,000 people living with dementia. 514 00:27:37,800 --> 00:27:43,200 A lot of your listeners will know or have experience of dementia in their families or 515 00:27:43,200 --> 00:27:44,200 however it may be. 516 00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:47,480 But you call people who have dementia, you say that they are living with dementia. 517 00:27:47,480 --> 00:27:49,160 You don't say it's a disease. 518 00:27:49,160 --> 00:27:53,000 They don't suffer from dementia because of the stigma that's attached to that. 519 00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:56,360 So they're people who are living with dementia and they obviously have their carers. 520 00:27:56,360 --> 00:28:03,760 And I've learned all of this through my talking to the people at DSG, at Dementia Singapore, 521 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:06,320 and just reading up about it and learning more. 522 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:11,240 But of course, with every one person living with dementia, there's family and there are 523 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:12,240 carers. 524 00:28:12,240 --> 00:28:17,040 So let's say on average, that might be four people relatively closely knit. 525 00:28:17,040 --> 00:28:21,560 That here in Singapore is nearly 500,000 people who've got it somehow connected to them. 526 00:28:21,560 --> 00:28:22,920 And I suspect that number is bigger. 527 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:26,560 We're a population of about 6.5 million, or whatever we are here. 528 00:28:26,560 --> 00:28:27,560 That's a huge number. 529 00:28:27,560 --> 00:28:28,560 Oh, there's two monkeys. 530 00:28:28,560 --> 00:28:29,560 Do you see them? 531 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:30,560 Yeah. 532 00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:31,560 Okay. 533 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:32,560 Two small monkeys walking up ahead. 534 00:28:32,560 --> 00:28:34,280 Actually, monkeys are a little bit of a... 535 00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:37,120 I'm not too happy to see the monkeys here. 536 00:28:37,120 --> 00:28:42,320 Last week, I had a Danish chappin who's come and done it three times with me. 537 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:46,000 A monkey saw him opening up a breakfast bar as he was going along and it jumped down the 538 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:48,000 tree, jumped up his arm and took it out of his hand. 539 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:49,000 Oh no. 540 00:28:49,000 --> 00:28:50,000 So you've got to be a bit careful for sure. 541 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:51,480 You don't like it when they hiss at you. 542 00:28:51,480 --> 00:28:52,480 Yeah. 543 00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:57,720 So globally, there are 55 million people who are registered as living with dementia or 544 00:28:57,720 --> 00:28:58,720 a form of Alzheimer's. 545 00:28:58,720 --> 00:29:02,600 So again, if you multiply that by say four, you're a quarter of a billion people who's 546 00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:03,600 affected by it. 547 00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:04,600 Yeah. 548 00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:06,080 So it's a huge issue, as you can tell. 549 00:29:06,080 --> 00:29:10,280 So I've had the opportunity to go to the New Horizons centers here in Singapore and meet 550 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:16,760 with the direct carers and the nurses at the centers, which has been really wonderful and 551 00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:18,100 very humbling. 552 00:29:18,100 --> 00:29:21,640 And the work they do is fantastic. 553 00:29:21,640 --> 00:29:27,320 And I don't want to sound glib about it, but they really do do an amazing job in challenging 554 00:29:27,320 --> 00:29:28,320 circumstances. 555 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:33,920 And they have different sort of levels of people who are living with dementia from very 556 00:29:33,920 --> 00:29:38,280 early onset dementia and early stage to quite late stage living there. 557 00:29:38,280 --> 00:29:40,920 So have you ever done anything like this before, Tom? 558 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:41,920 No. 559 00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:43,840 I used to run marathons quite a lot as a kid. 560 00:29:43,840 --> 00:29:45,760 I've always been very into the outdoors. 561 00:29:45,760 --> 00:29:49,080 I've come from the countryside effectively in the UK. 562 00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:53,400 I lived up in the Lake District for a long period of time as well, on and off with my 563 00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:54,920 parents up there. 564 00:29:54,920 --> 00:29:56,640 And so I've always loved the countryside. 565 00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:01,640 So I ran a few marathons and things, and I once did it for shelter back in 2005. 566 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:03,400 Gosh, that was a long time ago. 567 00:30:03,400 --> 00:30:10,360 But I've never done anything with such purpose and such longevity and also the whole fundraising 568 00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:11,360 thing like this. 569 00:30:11,360 --> 00:30:14,760 So it's really developed and I've just been making it up as I'm going along in many ways. 570 00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:15,760 Yeah. 571 00:30:15,760 --> 00:30:16,760 Yeah. 572 00:30:16,760 --> 00:30:18,680 I mean, it seems like that, but maybe that's how these things start. 573 00:30:18,680 --> 00:30:19,680 Yeah. 574 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:20,680 You know, you never know. 575 00:30:20,680 --> 00:30:21,680 Yeah, absolutely. 576 00:30:21,680 --> 00:30:23,240 We talked a little bit about the animals. 577 00:30:23,240 --> 00:30:24,240 We've seen some monkeys. 578 00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:26,240 We saw a lizard, a heron. 579 00:30:26,240 --> 00:30:30,280 You had mentioned even a blue Malayan coral snake that you once saw. 580 00:30:30,280 --> 00:30:31,280 Okay. 581 00:30:31,280 --> 00:30:32,280 So what's going on with the animals? 582 00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:33,280 What's going on with the animals? 583 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:39,040 So 20% of the time when I'm here, I do it with a couple of runners coming past us now. 584 00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:40,040 Morning. 585 00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:41,040 Morning. 586 00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:42,520 Or maybe 15% of the time I do it on my own. 587 00:30:42,520 --> 00:30:45,240 So I don't stop just because I don't have people to go with me. 588 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:46,240 Yeah. 589 00:30:46,240 --> 00:30:48,040 But 85% of the time, obviously, I do it with people. 590 00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:49,200 And I love doing it with people. 591 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:50,200 That's what the whole thing is about. 592 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:53,600 But actually, I do sometimes quite like doing it on my own as well so I can have time to 593 00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:58,360 think or listen to a podcast or just listen to the sounds of the jungle. 594 00:30:58,360 --> 00:30:59,360 It's lovely too. 595 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,000 And obviously, just seeing the sunrise, it's so spiritual. 596 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:03,000 It's wonderful. 597 00:31:03,000 --> 00:31:04,000 Yeah. 598 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:06,680 But as a result of coming out here so much, and particularly when you're on your own, 599 00:31:06,680 --> 00:31:08,200 you see an awful lot of animals. 600 00:31:08,200 --> 00:31:13,580 So I was actually recording the information I was seeing in one of my various spreadsheets 601 00:31:13,580 --> 00:31:16,120 of the sort of animals that I was seeing. 602 00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:20,680 And I thought, well, it would be a good idea to maybe be a bit more formal. 603 00:31:20,680 --> 00:31:25,360 So I wrote to NParks here in Singapore, which is equivalent to National Parks or National 604 00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:30,120 Trust or whatever it may be in your various countries that your listeners are in, and 605 00:31:30,120 --> 00:31:33,080 said, hey, look, I'm here basically every day at the same time. 606 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:37,200 I'm taking note of the fauna and the wildlife that I see. 607 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,720 Would you like to have it as effectively as an audit of the park over the year? 608 00:31:40,720 --> 00:31:41,720 Yeah. 609 00:31:41,720 --> 00:31:42,960 And they said, yes, that'd be great. 610 00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:45,000 So I send them a list every month. 611 00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:47,440 I suspect it goes straight into their trash can now. 612 00:31:47,440 --> 00:31:50,400 But I've given them so much of it. 613 00:31:50,400 --> 00:31:52,760 But for me, it also gives me a bit of direction, and I quite like it. 614 00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:55,440 So I deal with it at the end of every week. 615 00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:59,600 So I've set up in my head, and everybody now knows about it, what I call the McRitchie 616 00:31:59,600 --> 00:32:01,040 Big Five. 617 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:05,480 And the McRitchie Big Five is meant to emulate, obviously, the Safari Big Five that you'll 618 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:06,480 all be aware of. 619 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:13,080 But the McRitchie Big Five constitutes the colligo, which is effectively a flying fox. 620 00:32:13,080 --> 00:32:16,800 It glides between the trees, sort of bat-like. 621 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:20,440 And as I said at the beginning of this, earlier today, before we started recording, there 622 00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:25,280 are two that live right at the very start of the loop that we're on today. 623 00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:27,120 And they've just had a little baby. 624 00:32:27,120 --> 00:32:31,520 So I've just shown you the picture of the baby, and maybe you can put it onto the web 625 00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:32,520 page. 626 00:32:32,520 --> 00:32:33,520 But it's very, very pretty. 627 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:36,440 You see them, tend to see them at dusk or dawn. 628 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:38,480 And they're very, they're sort of nocturnal. 629 00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:39,800 You don't see them that often. 630 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:45,200 Lizards, I've said, the monitor lizards which you described earlier, I've seen 302 of those 631 00:32:45,200 --> 00:32:46,200 now. 632 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:49,560 I suspect quite a few of them are the same ones, but there are lots of them in Singapore 633 00:32:49,560 --> 00:32:50,560 generally. 634 00:32:50,560 --> 00:32:52,120 But 302 of those. 635 00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:54,200 Monkeys, it's much rarer not to see monkeys. 636 00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:56,360 And there you go, we've just seen some monkeys. 637 00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,640 So actually, I've only ever not seen monkeys on three occasions. 638 00:32:59,640 --> 00:33:06,460 And one of my friends that I've just made is part of that 283 number I gave you earlier. 639 00:33:06,460 --> 00:33:11,600 When he came out, on the first two occasions, we saw nothing, no animals at all. 640 00:33:11,600 --> 00:33:12,600 Didn't even see monkeys. 641 00:33:12,600 --> 00:33:14,240 So he'd say, oh, mate, this is rubbish. 642 00:33:14,240 --> 00:33:15,400 There aren't any animals here. 643 00:33:15,400 --> 00:33:16,400 I don't believe it. 644 00:33:16,400 --> 00:33:21,520 So actually, on his third lap, we saw monkeys and he was awarded his cap. 645 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,220 So it was high fives all around at the end of it because he was able to see his monkeys. 646 00:33:25,220 --> 00:33:29,480 When we get to the more interesting things, wild boar is the fourth of the McRitchie Big 647 00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:30,480 Five. 648 00:33:30,480 --> 00:33:31,880 And I've seen 55 wild boar. 649 00:33:31,880 --> 00:33:32,880 Wow. 650 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:39,360 From very, very baby ones to little baby ones to very big adult male wild boar. 651 00:33:39,360 --> 00:33:43,920 And I've actually been in a group of 10 where they just walked straight out. 652 00:33:43,920 --> 00:33:46,960 So there were three mamas and seven babies. 653 00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:48,520 And that was quite scary, actually. 654 00:33:48,520 --> 00:33:54,840 So there were two of us walking around and we saw the wild boar and they came out, danged 655 00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:55,840 around us. 656 00:33:55,840 --> 00:33:56,840 So that wasn't ideal. 657 00:33:56,840 --> 00:34:01,560 We just sort of stopped and waited for them to move on, but 10 of them at the same time. 658 00:34:01,560 --> 00:34:04,000 I've seen all sorts of other stuff as well as the McRitchie Big Five. 659 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:07,200 I've seen something which is equivalent to a sort of Galapagos tortoise. 660 00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:09,320 Huge, very, very big. 661 00:34:09,320 --> 00:34:12,720 And it clearly shouldn't have been here, but it's been released into the wild by somebody, 662 00:34:12,720 --> 00:34:13,840 I suspect. 663 00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:15,920 I've seen a scorpion. 664 00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:18,920 I've seen a critically endangered buffy fish owl. 665 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:21,560 I've seen stingrays. 666 00:34:21,560 --> 00:34:24,280 I've seen very large soft shell snapping turtles. 667 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,680 I told you about the three seagulls that were out yesterday that were playing around. 668 00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:28,680 It was lovely. 669 00:34:28,680 --> 00:34:29,680 I've seen all sorts. 670 00:34:29,680 --> 00:34:30,680 It's been wonderful. 671 00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:31,880 And then you've got the snake. 672 00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:33,280 Sorry, that's the best one. 673 00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:35,320 And so snakes are what people really are interested in. 674 00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:38,120 I've seen all sorts of snakes. 675 00:34:38,120 --> 00:34:41,600 Some I've no idea what they are, but it's rare that we don't see snakes. 676 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,080 To be honest with you now, there are a lot. 677 00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:46,560 And I know a lot of people will think, oh, that's grim. 678 00:34:46,560 --> 00:34:54,440 But I'm sort of, I'm not quite sure if I'm 99% scared, 1% excited or the other way around. 679 00:34:54,440 --> 00:34:59,480 Of the ones that you'd be interested in, I've seen two Waggler pit vipers, which are fluorescent 680 00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:01,240 yellow or green like your hat. 681 00:35:01,240 --> 00:35:02,240 Yep. 682 00:35:02,240 --> 00:35:03,240 Wow. 683 00:35:03,240 --> 00:35:04,840 They've got a triangular head and they are pretty venomous. 684 00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:06,800 You wouldn't want to get nipped by one of those. 685 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:10,680 I've seen three python in the trees. 686 00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:11,680 In the trees. 687 00:35:11,680 --> 00:35:13,720 In the trees, so wrapped up around the trees. 688 00:35:13,720 --> 00:35:14,720 Morning. 689 00:35:14,720 --> 00:35:15,720 Hiya. 690 00:35:15,720 --> 00:35:18,520 So that chap runs it every morning. 691 00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:19,520 Oh, nice. 692 00:35:19,520 --> 00:35:20,520 Yeah. 693 00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:22,360 I've seen three king cobras. 694 00:35:22,360 --> 00:35:25,320 So two king cobras in the trees, wrapped up. 695 00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:30,280 And one about 10, 12 meters ahead of me crossing the path. 696 00:35:30,280 --> 00:35:33,400 And it sensed me obviously before I saw it and it started to raise its head. 697 00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:37,960 So I gave it a very wide berth of 15 minutes and let it slither on and went nowhere near 698 00:35:37,960 --> 00:35:38,960 it, as you can imagine. 699 00:35:38,960 --> 00:35:39,960 Yeah. 700 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:44,680 I've also seen seven black spitting cobras, which are equally not very nice people to 701 00:35:44,680 --> 00:35:49,080 know and would have a good crack at you if they could. 702 00:35:49,080 --> 00:35:52,040 And they're, you know, highly, highly venomous. 703 00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:55,840 And the best one is, as I mentioned earlier, the blue Malayan coral snake. 704 00:35:55,840 --> 00:35:59,960 Now, if you look that up on Google, there are all sorts of things about them. 705 00:35:59,960 --> 00:36:01,600 About a meter and a half long. 706 00:36:01,600 --> 00:36:02,600 Yep. 707 00:36:02,600 --> 00:36:07,040 They're black with an electric glue stripe down the middle of it and an orange tip and 708 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:08,040 an orange head. 709 00:36:08,040 --> 00:36:10,520 I've seen seven of these things. 710 00:36:10,520 --> 00:36:12,920 They're also called the hundred pace snake. 711 00:36:12,920 --> 00:36:17,920 So if you get bitten by one of those, you've got a hundred paces before you die. 712 00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:19,480 There's no anti-venom for them. 713 00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:22,640 They're the second most toxic snake in Asia. 714 00:36:22,640 --> 00:36:26,960 They've got the largest venom glands of any snake in the world. 715 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:31,920 And they're also known as the killer's killer because they hunt cobras and kill cobras. 716 00:36:31,920 --> 00:36:32,920 Wow. 717 00:36:32,920 --> 00:36:33,920 Other snakes, yeah. 718 00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:34,920 Yeah. 719 00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:35,920 But they kill the cobras. 720 00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:37,240 And so they're the snakes I've seen. 721 00:36:37,240 --> 00:36:41,320 Above that, I've set up what I call the, what I call the king of the jungle. 722 00:36:41,320 --> 00:36:45,320 And I mentioned that I had diversity, equity and inclusion day. 723 00:36:45,320 --> 00:36:46,320 Do you remember I said that? 724 00:36:46,320 --> 00:36:47,320 We did it. 725 00:36:47,320 --> 00:36:52,120 I thought I'd done pretty well actually in terms of Dee and I until I said, and then 726 00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:53,480 we get to the king of the jungle. 727 00:36:53,480 --> 00:36:55,960 At which point someone on that group said to me, do you mean the queen? 728 00:36:55,960 --> 00:37:00,400 And I said, oh gosh, of all the things that I thought I could be undiverse and equitable 729 00:37:00,400 --> 00:37:03,360 and inclusive about, I didn't think it was going to be about a pangolin. 730 00:37:03,360 --> 00:37:05,000 I tried so hard. 731 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:12,440 Anyway, the pangolin is obviously very, very rare and it's globally highly critically endangered. 732 00:37:12,440 --> 00:37:16,840 And I don't know if you saw last week that in Nigeria they had to burn, the authorities 733 00:37:16,840 --> 00:37:22,120 burnt 1.5 tons of pangolin scales because they were going to be used for traditional 734 00:37:22,120 --> 00:37:24,440 Chinese medicine and shipped between Vietnam and China. 735 00:37:24,440 --> 00:37:25,440 So these are smuggled. 736 00:37:25,440 --> 00:37:27,120 They're smuggled, exactly. 737 00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:28,640 And so it's terribly sad. 738 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:34,560 There are only 1,030 pangolin left in Singapore according to a report about two months ago. 739 00:37:34,560 --> 00:37:35,560 And I've seen two. 740 00:37:35,560 --> 00:37:40,920 So I saw one about five meters into the jungle going away from me some time ago. 741 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,640 And then about six weeks ago, I had some folk in from Finland. 742 00:37:43,640 --> 00:37:48,560 So one of the 31 countries that I had, and they were in town for a conference and somebody 743 00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:51,160 said, could you take them out and do your MacRitchie with them? 744 00:37:51,160 --> 00:37:52,160 And I said, absolutely. 745 00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:57,600 Well, as I was talking to them about the animals, very oddly, I had a little rustling to my 746 00:37:57,600 --> 00:37:58,880 left. 747 00:37:58,880 --> 00:38:02,520 I get to see and know where things are going to be just because I've been here so many 748 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:03,520 times, you can tell. 749 00:38:03,520 --> 00:38:04,520 And I said, it was a little rustling. 750 00:38:04,520 --> 00:38:07,520 I thought, oh, I wonder if that might be a mouse deer, which is one of these very small 751 00:38:07,520 --> 00:38:08,520 deers. 752 00:38:08,520 --> 00:38:09,520 And it wasn't. 753 00:38:09,520 --> 00:38:10,520 It was a pangolin. 754 00:38:10,520 --> 00:38:15,800 It just sauntered along alongside us and then decided to walk straight out in front of us, 755 00:38:15,800 --> 00:38:18,880 sniffed around, had a look and just walked straight across us. 756 00:38:18,880 --> 00:38:21,040 If we weren't there, it was really quite remarkable. 757 00:38:21,040 --> 00:38:23,400 It was wonderful, actually. 758 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:24,400 Totally majestic. 759 00:38:24,400 --> 00:38:27,400 And again, I'll send you the video of that if you're keen to see it. 760 00:38:27,400 --> 00:38:29,440 But it really is extraordinary. 761 00:38:29,440 --> 00:38:31,000 So that's the pangolin. 762 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:37,960 And then above that, I've got the emperor or the empress of the jungle, which is the 763 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:43,440 Samba deer, and the Samba deer, there are 40 of them left in Singapore. 764 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:45,160 And so they're incredibly rare. 765 00:38:45,160 --> 00:38:47,460 And I've seen two of them here up here. 766 00:38:47,460 --> 00:38:50,760 And I suspect because they're so rare, I've probably seen the same one twice, actually, 767 00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:51,760 again. 768 00:38:51,760 --> 00:38:52,760 And they're like little horses. 769 00:38:52,760 --> 00:38:57,440 They're big, you know, and they just ran across me from nowhere and I had no idea. 770 00:38:57,440 --> 00:38:59,080 So that's the animals. 771 00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:00,080 That's what it's all about. 772 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:04,280 And the whole thing comes to an end on January the 13th. 773 00:39:04,280 --> 00:39:07,480 I will continue to do this because it's been wonderful for so many reasons. 774 00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:08,840 I hope you can tell. 775 00:39:08,840 --> 00:39:10,960 And I've got so much out of it. 776 00:39:10,960 --> 00:39:13,880 But it has to come to an end at some stage, at least the formal bit of it has to come 777 00:39:13,880 --> 00:39:14,880 to an end. 778 00:39:14,880 --> 00:39:18,400 So January the 13th will be the last day, which is the nearest Saturday to the day I 779 00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,560 started on in this year. 780 00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:24,040 And I'll do three laps that day. 781 00:39:24,040 --> 00:39:27,320 The first lap, I'll do on my own, say goodbye to the challenge. 782 00:39:27,320 --> 00:39:31,880 And actually, every time I say that, I get a little bit emotional about it and just think, 783 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:34,920 gosh, it's been such a big thing of my life this year. 784 00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:39,720 So I'll probably go around that miserable as sin, crying my eyes out and listening to 785 00:39:39,720 --> 00:39:40,720 Morrissey. 786 00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:42,880 Lap two is already organized. 787 00:39:42,880 --> 00:39:46,740 I'm going to take out the founders, so Mike, Faye and Will. 788 00:39:46,740 --> 00:39:49,880 And then lap three, it's a come one, come all. 789 00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:54,960 So that, Erica, if you don't do it beforehand, it's the perfect opportunity for you to take 790 00:39:54,960 --> 00:39:57,800 that asterisk off your name, albeit you don't have an asterisk. 791 00:39:57,800 --> 00:39:58,800 I don't have an asterisk. 792 00:39:58,800 --> 00:39:59,800 Well, yeah. 793 00:39:59,800 --> 00:40:00,800 I'm rule six, right? 794 00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:01,800 You are rule six. 795 00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:03,360 But now I consider you to be a friend. 796 00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:09,160 So I'm going to get now I'm making a new rule, rule eight, law eight, anybody who's got it 797 00:40:09,160 --> 00:40:11,240 under law six, but could have had it under law seven. 798 00:40:11,240 --> 00:40:14,000 I have to get the asterisk and therefore has to take it off. 799 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:15,000 So there you go. 800 00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:16,000 You've got to come back. 801 00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:19,040 So January the 13th and come one, come all. 802 00:40:19,040 --> 00:40:20,480 We'll probably start at about midday. 803 00:40:20,480 --> 00:40:23,760 I've just got to work it out, the details, but we'll all go around. 804 00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:26,000 I reckon there'll be about 100 people there, hopefully. 805 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:29,800 And we'll go around and then we'll end it by walking to the Polo Club, which is just 806 00:40:29,800 --> 00:40:35,120 down the road from here and have a barbecue and party to raise a bit more funds to the 807 00:40:35,120 --> 00:40:36,120 charity. 808 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:37,120 Lovely. 809 00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:38,120 So there you go. 810 00:40:38,120 --> 00:40:41,400 And so most times we do this lap, I'll tell people most of what I've just explained to 811 00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:42,400 you. 812 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:46,720 And as I said at the beginning, you know, the more open I am about things, the more 813 00:40:46,720 --> 00:40:48,320 open other people have become. 814 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:51,560 There's a sort of omerta here. 815 00:40:51,560 --> 00:40:55,040 So what's said in Ritchie stays in Ritchie completely. 816 00:40:55,040 --> 00:41:01,160 Because I've obviously been privy to a huge amount of news, gossip, all that sort of stuff. 817 00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:05,880 But it has been a wonderful experience and all that stuff stays here. 818 00:41:05,880 --> 00:41:06,880 But it's been brilliant. 819 00:41:06,880 --> 00:41:07,880 Yeah. 820 00:41:07,880 --> 00:41:12,140 I mean, have you found people wanting to come out here for any specific reason beyond just 821 00:41:12,140 --> 00:41:14,760 being a part of the charity mission? 822 00:41:14,760 --> 00:41:20,600 I mean, is it like a cathartic thing to coming out here and kind of talking about things? 823 00:41:20,600 --> 00:41:21,600 I think so. 824 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:23,600 I mean, I am no counselor. 825 00:41:23,600 --> 00:41:25,040 I'm no therapist. 826 00:41:25,040 --> 00:41:27,480 I don't profess to do any of those sorts of things. 827 00:41:27,480 --> 00:41:29,680 But I am a reasonably good listener. 828 00:41:29,680 --> 00:41:31,480 And I've heard an awful lot of stuff from people. 829 00:41:31,480 --> 00:41:36,520 And for what it's worth, you know, given my views on stuff, I'm no saint. 830 00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:39,340 I've done things that I'm not necessarily proud of in my life. 831 00:41:39,340 --> 00:41:40,920 But at the same time, I try my best. 832 00:41:40,920 --> 00:41:44,940 And every day, I suppose one tries their best to do things the right way. 833 00:41:44,940 --> 00:41:51,800 And so at least I can give a little bit of experience and help out if necessary. 834 00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:55,120 And people do come and they do talk about stuff. 835 00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:58,480 I've met some really lovely people and actually some people now that I will consider to be 836 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:03,360 very close friends and people that actually, oddly, I'd sort of targeted previously as 837 00:42:03,360 --> 00:42:07,800 being somebody that I should know because one, they work in my industry. 838 00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:11,040 They're about the same age as me, whatever it might be. 839 00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:14,080 And they've written to me, a couple of them have written, well, more than a couple, have 840 00:42:14,080 --> 00:42:16,120 written to me and said, hey, I've seen what you're doing. 841 00:42:16,120 --> 00:42:17,380 We should know each other. 842 00:42:17,380 --> 00:42:18,380 It's funny that we don't. 843 00:42:18,380 --> 00:42:19,380 Yeah. 844 00:42:19,380 --> 00:42:24,080 I've got dementia in my family, my sister, my brother, whatever it might be. 845 00:42:24,080 --> 00:42:27,280 And I'd like to come and meet you and just talk. 846 00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:31,000 And I actually count a number of people now, amongst some quite close friends as a result 847 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:32,000 of that. 848 00:42:32,000 --> 00:42:33,000 So I do my best. 849 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:36,840 As I said, I'm no counselor or therapist, but certainly I think people do come and they 850 00:42:36,840 --> 00:42:41,320 are much keen to open up once they've heard me talk to them about what it's all about, 851 00:42:41,320 --> 00:42:42,320 really. 852 00:42:42,320 --> 00:42:43,320 Absolutely, right? 853 00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:44,320 Yeah, I think so. 854 00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:46,480 But it's been a journey in so many ways. 855 00:42:46,480 --> 00:42:51,760 I've learned so much about the charity, dementia, people living with dementia and issues around 856 00:42:51,760 --> 00:42:52,760 that. 857 00:42:52,760 --> 00:42:54,160 I've learned so much about the jungle. 858 00:42:54,160 --> 00:42:56,040 I've learned so much about wildlife. 859 00:42:56,040 --> 00:42:59,400 Incidentally, people often ask me, how do I know about what all the animals are that 860 00:42:59,400 --> 00:43:00,400 I see? 861 00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:03,320 As I say, I'm slightly fascinated by snakes, but slightly terrified by them. 862 00:43:03,320 --> 00:43:07,600 But there's also a Facebook page which I regularly post on called Singapore Wildlife Sightings. 863 00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:11,320 And so if I don't know something, I'll shove it on that and someone will say, oh, that's 864 00:43:11,320 --> 00:43:13,800 a buffy fish or whatever it might be. 865 00:43:13,800 --> 00:43:14,800 Exactly. 866 00:43:14,800 --> 00:43:15,800 And so that's really quite helpful. 867 00:43:15,800 --> 00:43:22,600 And I've also learned an awful lot about me and myself and areas where just because I've 868 00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:30,200 have so much time to think about stuff and just areas of consistent trying to work things 869 00:43:30,200 --> 00:43:31,800 out and get things right. 870 00:43:31,800 --> 00:43:33,640 Because it's not always easy. 871 00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:36,620 We all live in stressful, long working lives. 872 00:43:36,620 --> 00:43:40,960 We all have our own personal things we have to deal with. 873 00:43:40,960 --> 00:43:45,920 And it's been a really good way of just trying to sort of compartmentalize and deal with 874 00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:46,920 some of those things. 875 00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:47,920 And it's not always easy. 876 00:43:47,920 --> 00:43:48,920 Yeah. 877 00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:49,920 Yeah. 878 00:43:49,920 --> 00:43:53,600 You know, they say that walking clears your brain in that you're able to think through 879 00:43:53,600 --> 00:43:56,200 things much more clearly. 880 00:43:56,200 --> 00:43:58,680 And I'm a huge fan of Friedrich Nietzsche. 881 00:43:58,680 --> 00:44:00,360 Of what, sorry? 882 00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:01,360 Friedrich Nietzsche. 883 00:44:01,360 --> 00:44:02,360 Oh, yes. 884 00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:03,360 Yes, of course. 885 00:44:03,360 --> 00:44:07,760 And he always said, you know, every good thought comes from walking. 886 00:44:07,760 --> 00:44:09,240 And I think that it's so true. 887 00:44:09,240 --> 00:44:12,960 You can really think through things when you're moving rather than being stationary. 888 00:44:12,960 --> 00:44:17,160 I think we're going back to one of the first reasons you started is kind of thinking through 889 00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:20,400 things, being more healthy, not drinking. 890 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:21,400 Yep. 891 00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:22,400 Yep, absolutely. 892 00:44:22,400 --> 00:44:26,080 And, you know, if I'd stopped drinking altogether, I'd have lost even more weight than I have 893 00:44:26,080 --> 00:44:27,080 done. 894 00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:28,240 There are health benefits of it. 895 00:44:28,240 --> 00:44:31,240 I've lost seven or eight kilograms this year, which is great. 896 00:44:31,240 --> 00:44:35,520 And it just gives you a, it just gives you this new sort of goal. 897 00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:36,520 But absolutely. 898 00:44:36,520 --> 00:44:41,600 And it's really great for, just as I used to find running used to be as a younger chap. 899 00:44:41,600 --> 00:44:42,600 Sure. 900 00:44:42,600 --> 00:44:44,400 I'd go out, you clear your brain. 901 00:44:44,400 --> 00:44:45,400 It's a well-known thing. 902 00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:48,920 You know, the endorphins start pumping and you just clear your head. 903 00:44:48,920 --> 00:44:50,920 And you get also quite clarity of thinking. 904 00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:53,160 And here too, exactly the same for sure. 905 00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:55,480 It's been brilliant for exactly that reason. 906 00:44:55,480 --> 00:44:58,640 And actually talking to people as well just gives you other new insights into things that 907 00:44:58,640 --> 00:44:59,640 you wouldn't necessarily have heard. 908 00:44:59,640 --> 00:45:01,480 I've heard so many interesting people. 909 00:45:01,480 --> 00:45:04,640 I've heard so many things that you have no idea about. 910 00:45:04,640 --> 00:45:08,240 You know, behind closed doors is one of those phrases that people talk a bit about, but 911 00:45:08,240 --> 00:45:12,640 actually you realize that your life isn't necessarily as bad as it might sometimes might 912 00:45:12,640 --> 00:45:15,520 feel because other people are going through the same thing. 913 00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:17,560 And I'm not saying that my life is bad. 914 00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:20,000 I'm not saying I'm an alcoholic in any way. 915 00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:21,240 None of those things. 916 00:45:21,240 --> 00:45:24,600 But we all have our own issues that we need to deal with. 917 00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:30,720 And actually it's quite nice to then be backed up by the fact that other people are also 918 00:45:30,720 --> 00:45:34,000 experiencing similar sorts of things that you wouldn't necessarily always think. 919 00:45:34,000 --> 00:45:36,080 They say you never know. 920 00:45:36,080 --> 00:45:39,960 You never know what someone's going through just by looking at them on the surface, especially 921 00:45:39,960 --> 00:45:44,280 when you're working in law, you're working downtown in Singapore, you've got a lot of 922 00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:47,120 people walking around looking very put together. 923 00:45:47,120 --> 00:45:48,120 Exactly. 924 00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:49,120 Absolutely. 925 00:45:49,120 --> 00:45:50,120 Absolutely. 926 00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:51,120 It's pretty, isn't it? 927 00:45:51,120 --> 00:45:52,120 I know. 928 00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,600 It's so nice and calm. 929 00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:58,240 It's hard for most people to imagine, I think, who live here. 930 00:45:58,240 --> 00:46:02,920 You know, I mean, most of us, we're living in high-rise condos or we're going to Orchard 931 00:46:02,920 --> 00:46:04,840 Road or Denci or something like that. 932 00:46:04,840 --> 00:46:10,000 It's all very nice, many things put together. 933 00:46:10,000 --> 00:46:11,000 That's right. 934 00:46:11,000 --> 00:46:12,000 Exactly. 935 00:46:12,000 --> 00:46:13,000 But it's a wild place out here, right? 936 00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:14,000 Yes, absolutely. 937 00:46:14,000 --> 00:46:16,100 Well, that's one of the reasons actually, that's a nice segue. 938 00:46:16,100 --> 00:46:19,280 That's one of the reasons why people want to come on it when they come into Singapore. 939 00:46:19,280 --> 00:46:23,520 So obviously, I don't know everybody comes into Singapore, but quite often if I know 940 00:46:23,520 --> 00:46:27,520 people are coming in, either from my office or clients or whatever it is, I'll say, listen, 941 00:46:27,520 --> 00:46:30,280 rather than go for that coffee or that lunch, come here. 942 00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:33,040 And they normally think he's mad, what's he talking about? 943 00:46:33,040 --> 00:46:35,040 And at that time, no thanks. 944 00:46:35,040 --> 00:46:37,120 But the reality is most of them come and do it. 945 00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:41,160 And they get to see a side of Singapore they would never experience otherwise, because 946 00:46:41,160 --> 00:46:46,640 they come to the hotel, they come to the restaurant, and they come to the offices. 947 00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:47,640 That's it. 948 00:46:47,640 --> 00:46:50,120 And they're here for three, four days, whatever it might be before flying home or to Hong 949 00:46:50,120 --> 00:46:51,400 Kong or whatever it might be. 950 00:46:51,400 --> 00:46:53,400 But they don't get to see this. 951 00:46:53,400 --> 00:46:57,640 And this really is the real Singapore. 952 00:46:57,640 --> 00:46:58,640 You know, this is the jungle. 953 00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:00,560 This is what it was all about. 954 00:47:00,560 --> 00:47:03,520 And I have to say, I absolutely love it for exactly that reason. 955 00:47:03,520 --> 00:47:05,520 Yeah, it's lovely. 956 00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:07,280 We're just going up some more steps. 957 00:47:07,280 --> 00:47:13,400 So what I do, I think you know, is during every loop, I take a whole bunch of photographs. 958 00:47:13,400 --> 00:47:18,080 And at the end of every loop, I then do a Photoshop job on it, make me look good and 959 00:47:18,080 --> 00:47:20,400 don't care about anybody else, of course. 960 00:47:20,400 --> 00:47:22,640 And then I send you around the official photo of that loop. 961 00:47:22,640 --> 00:47:23,640 Yep. 962 00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:28,960 And I send you a folder of 276 photos and various other footage and stuff. 963 00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:34,160 And at the end of the year, I've already got somebody lined up now to make a little montage 964 00:47:34,160 --> 00:47:36,520 straight documentary type thing. 965 00:47:36,520 --> 00:47:42,120 Because it's been again, I don't want to look like an idiot, but I am very proud of it. 966 00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:48,000 And it has taken an awful lot of time, effort and steps to do this. 967 00:47:48,000 --> 00:47:51,400 And I'd like to remember it because of all the things, the good and positive things that 968 00:47:51,400 --> 00:47:52,960 have come from it. 969 00:47:52,960 --> 00:47:57,120 So at the end of the year, I'll release it and we'll do a party again at our offices 970 00:47:57,120 --> 00:47:58,400 here in Singapore. 971 00:47:58,400 --> 00:48:01,000 I may well do it in our offices in London as well. 972 00:48:01,000 --> 00:48:02,480 And then try to raise a little bit more money. 973 00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:10,160 But everybody who's been on the loop with me will feature in the video. 974 00:48:10,160 --> 00:48:12,840 So this was where I was when I saw the Tenwa Boar. 975 00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:14,880 They were just here. 976 00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:18,880 They all just crossed across here and they came straight into us. 977 00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:22,320 And we're here walking right like kilometer eight, apparently. 978 00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:25,680 According to the sign through the woods. 979 00:48:25,680 --> 00:48:30,040 It's such a nice, it feels so cool in here too, because Singapore is normally so hot. 980 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:31,040 Yes, exactly. 981 00:48:31,040 --> 00:48:32,800 And so under the canopy, it really does. 982 00:48:32,800 --> 00:48:36,000 It also gets very humid as well because of the canopy. 983 00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:37,720 So it's a mix of both really. 984 00:48:37,720 --> 00:48:41,000 No, it's been good. 985 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:42,000 Morning. 986 00:48:42,000 --> 00:48:43,000 Hi. 987 00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:44,000 Morning. 988 00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:53,760 It's quite a tricky run here because we do, I'd probably run it, as I said, about 30 percent. 989 00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:58,600 But it's quite tricky because underfoot it's, you know, there's a whole bunch of bricks 990 00:48:58,600 --> 00:49:02,840 here that are here and then there's stones and it's pretty rocky. 991 00:49:02,840 --> 00:49:04,640 It's reasonably hilly as well. 992 00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:05,640 Yeah. 993 00:49:05,640 --> 00:49:10,600 So we've talked about kind of your reasons, the reasons that people are joining you on 994 00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:11,600 this. 995 00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:16,160 Is there anything, because you said this has all come about organically. 996 00:49:16,160 --> 00:49:17,160 Yeah. 997 00:49:17,160 --> 00:49:22,280 Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would have changed from the beginning? 998 00:49:22,280 --> 00:49:26,440 I think I'd have been a little bit more logistically and technically savvy because it's been a 999 00:49:26,440 --> 00:49:29,520 real labor of love. 1000 00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:34,640 And it has taken up an inordinate amount of downtime, particularly the weekends, doing 1001 00:49:34,640 --> 00:49:38,320 what I need to do with the wildlife and setting up WhatsApp groups. 1002 00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:42,720 I mean, if you look at my WhatsApp, you know what they look like, I send around a number 1003 00:49:42,720 --> 00:49:46,160 of WhatsApp messages to people to remind them where to come, where to meet and all that 1004 00:49:46,160 --> 00:49:47,160 sort of stuff. 1005 00:49:47,160 --> 00:49:50,120 And I send some sort of warm up photographs of the last few loops so that they can see 1006 00:49:50,120 --> 00:49:51,120 what it's all about. 1007 00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:54,280 And there's a nice article that's been written about it and stuff. 1008 00:49:54,280 --> 00:49:56,880 And so I often send that around so people got a bit of an idea. 1009 00:49:56,880 --> 00:50:00,800 But it is a bit of a technical, a bit of a technical effort, logistical effort. 1010 00:50:00,800 --> 00:50:04,120 So I perhaps would have been a bit more conscious of that. 1011 00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:08,800 But a lot of this stuff that we've been talking about has really developed over time. 1012 00:50:08,800 --> 00:50:11,360 And that's what's nice actually, because it wasn't planned. 1013 00:50:11,360 --> 00:50:16,320 I didn't have all the speech that we've gone through and I've talked to you about today 1014 00:50:16,320 --> 00:50:17,960 right at the beginning. 1015 00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:23,640 So in a way, morning, I may have liked to have had that a bit more sort of clarified 1016 00:50:23,640 --> 00:50:25,320 in my head beforehand. 1017 00:50:25,320 --> 00:50:29,440 But also in another way, it's rather nice not to have had it because it's sort of as 1018 00:50:29,440 --> 00:50:32,920 confidence has grown in what I'm doing. 1019 00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:37,000 I thought more about it and realized what it's about. 1020 00:50:37,000 --> 00:50:42,320 So it's a bit of both on that one, I think, really. 1021 00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:47,200 But no, otherwise, it's just been a really lovely experience. 1022 00:50:47,200 --> 00:50:51,080 And I'm genuinely worried about what will happen next year. 1023 00:50:51,080 --> 00:50:53,000 I mean, not in a bad way. 1024 00:50:53,000 --> 00:50:58,200 But what happens when on the 14th of July, January, sorry, I wake up and I don't have 1025 00:50:58,200 --> 00:51:00,080 to, I don't have to come out here. 1026 00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:01,840 It'll be odd. 1027 00:51:01,840 --> 00:51:03,160 But also liberating as well. 1028 00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:06,360 But now I've got to think of something else to do. 1029 00:51:06,360 --> 00:51:12,080 Well there's that thing about you kind of gear up for this big thing. 1030 00:51:12,080 --> 00:51:14,480 People gear up for their first big marathon. 1031 00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:18,400 And it becomes this year long effort and then they do it and then there's almost like a 1032 00:51:18,400 --> 00:51:19,400 let down after it. 1033 00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:20,400 Yeah, exactly. 1034 00:51:20,400 --> 00:51:21,400 It's an anti-climax. 1035 00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:22,400 Morning. 1036 00:51:22,400 --> 00:51:23,400 An anti-climax. 1037 00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:27,560 Now, I'll have to get something sorted out as well and I will do. 1038 00:51:27,560 --> 00:51:28,760 There'll be a tail on this. 1039 00:51:28,760 --> 00:51:30,400 There'll be a sort of long tail. 1040 00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:34,320 And to be fair, I'm still going to be doing a lot with the charity. 1041 00:51:34,320 --> 00:51:36,160 I just think they're great. 1042 00:51:36,160 --> 00:51:42,440 I'm committed to doing a lot for them going forward from here. 1043 00:51:42,440 --> 00:51:43,440 And I will do that. 1044 00:51:43,440 --> 00:51:48,840 But it may be just not quite as sort of high profile or relatively profile as it has been 1045 00:51:48,840 --> 00:51:51,360 over the last six months or so. 1046 00:51:51,360 --> 00:51:52,360 Yeah. 1047 00:51:52,360 --> 00:51:57,120 You know what I like to believe is that once you start walking, the path reveals itself. 1048 00:51:57,120 --> 00:51:58,120 Yeah. 1049 00:51:58,120 --> 00:51:59,120 It's so true. 1050 00:51:59,120 --> 00:52:03,280 And again, I was thinking about that last night thinking about this and I was thinking 1051 00:52:03,280 --> 00:52:04,920 what would I say in response to that? 1052 00:52:04,920 --> 00:52:06,840 So you say absolutely right. 1053 00:52:06,840 --> 00:52:08,780 You don't need to necessarily plan everything. 1054 00:52:08,780 --> 00:52:10,520 Some things do just come naturally. 1055 00:52:10,520 --> 00:52:16,240 And the path of life does take you down different routes and sometimes not great ones, sometimes 1056 00:52:16,240 --> 00:52:18,640 dead ends and sometimes incredibly long ones. 1057 00:52:18,640 --> 00:52:20,680 And this one has been one of the long ones. 1058 00:52:20,680 --> 00:52:24,840 And I think that hopefully when we reach the crossroads or T-junction or whatever it is 1059 00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:29,160 we get to in January, I'll take the next one right once we get to the next place. 1060 00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:30,640 But it is it's good. 1061 00:52:30,640 --> 00:52:31,640 It's good. 1062 00:52:31,640 --> 00:52:33,760 Thank you for listening today. 1063 00:52:33,760 --> 00:52:37,000 I hope this has been a useful investment of your time. 1064 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:41,720 If you feel inspired by this episode, please read it and consider subscribing. 1065 00:52:41,720 --> 00:52:55,240 I'm keen to know how it's impacted you.